AUSD Board of Ed to Vote on Master Plan, Budget for 2010-11

AUSD’s Board of Education will be holding a special meeting tomorrow night, June 29th, to discuss how the district should proceed in the wake of Measure E’s defeat last week.

Under the district’s Master Plan, approved last March, if Measure E had passed, the district would have implemented “Plan A,” which consisted of a number of district-wide reforms, including creating magnet schools in the West End to even out enrollment and provide more choices to families; creating new ways of tracking student and teacher performance; closing the academic achievement gap between various ethnic groups; and strengthening enrichment programs.

But because Measure E didn’t pass, the district is now in Plan B mode, which includes a series of cuts over the next three years to solve that projected $17 million deficit. For 2010-2011, those cuts — which were approved by the board on June 22nd — include laying off middle and high school counselors; reducing funds for special education, adult education, “gifted and talented” education, and textbooks; and implementing five furlough days for teachers.

For 2011-2012, the cost-savings measures will include increasing class sizes to 32:1; partially eliminating music, PE, and media teachers; increasing the number of furlough days; closing one middle school; closing one high school; and closing at least one elementary school. The district also expects to lay off dozens more teachers next year — in addition to the 130 teachers fired this year.

(Correction: According to the the proposed budget for 2011-2012, the district won’t start closing elementary schools until 2012-13, at which point, AUSD may close up to four elementary schools. But according to the resolution directing the superintendent to begin implementing Plan B, the district may close at least one elementary school next year.)

And just to clear up one point of confusion — a number of people on other local blogs last week complained that “AUSD said it was going to close schools if E didn’t pass and since they haven’t started doing it yet, they were just fear mongering, after all.” (That’s a paraphrase but it’s not far off.) But according to the Master Plan, as well as a series of financial updates provided to the board throughout the spring, the district never was going to close schools this year. That has always been scheduled to start next year. The wheels will be set in motion to plan for those closures tomorrow night.

Update:In the Case of the Competing Documents, the resolution is the most accurate. So, yes, the district may close at least one elementary school in 2011-2012.